She is a delight, a woman passionate about her art, happy with a business and the proud mother of two teenage daughters, Madison and Raleigh. She's created public art, fine art and hundreds of colorful glass creations called bellaballs - the name of her product and her business.

Like many of us, she always wanted to be an artist. Like too many of us, she felt her inability to draw to her own satisfaction meant she might not have the talent.

Then she discovered glass-blowing.

"The first time I worked with a furnace, it was 2200 degrees and I thought, 'This must be what hell feels like,'" Hansen said. "But working with glass required my full attention. It was alive.

"It's like applied physics. You need to know what glass can do at what heat. And you stretch boundaries."

To make glass art, Hansen works with a team of five, sometimes seven others. Each has an assigned role in any project, and without them doing their part art doesn't happen. She likes the social nature of the work.

And, like me, she remains fascinated by the art of creating art from glass. I was sold at Peter Pan, but Hansen's bellaballs are beautiful - and her fine art was just that.

Hansen's work has transitioned and grown, and if you'd like to see some of it, drop by bellaballs shop at 747 S. Fawcett, Suite B. There you can see those balls, and on days Diane Hansen is there, you can ask to walk down to her studio one floor below.

Read Next

This space won’t be vacant Monday. Various news stories, features and photos will easily fit it. For the past three years, though, this column appeared nearly every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday — as did the people, characters, cats and dogs and two pigs who inhabited it.